


Anyone Can Tell

by likeadeuce



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-10
Updated: 2009-12-10
Packaged: 2017-10-04 08:19:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/likeadeuce/pseuds/likeadeuce
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cordelia may be a name-tag person at the dress shop, but she still has a sense of civic responsibility.  Set during BtVS season 3, "The Prom"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Anyone Can Tell

Tucker Wells' gym locker was empty. Of course it would be, Xander realized, as he slammed the door shut. If there was one advantage to being a homicidal misfit, it was that you never felt the need to put on red and gold pajamas just so Larry Blaisdale could throw a medicine ball at your head.

Well, at least Xander could report back to Buffy that he had done his part in stopping Sunnydale's most overdressed from being mauled by hellhounds. Yes, Buffy had insisted, the dance would go on, and if she said so Xander would help -- however little enthusiasm he had for the prospect himself.

He was slipping from the locker room into the hallway of the darkened school, when a burst of noise came from the gym. Xander whirled around, picturing the slavering dog from that afternoon in the dress shop. Then he relaxed. _Take it easy, Harris. It's just music._ Someone testing the sound system for tomorrow's dance, probably. Not very likely that Tucker had taken a break from instilling rage in demon beasts to come down to the school and blast Ray Charles' _Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music_.

Still, Xander peered through a crack between the double doors and saw. . .

Cordelia Chase gliding barefoot on the floor of the basketball court, arm around an imaginary partner. He stood, transfixed, watching her spin and turn through a complex series of motions. Then she stopped to curtsey, looked up as though waiting for applause, and began the sequence again. Xander leaned closer to get a better look, and tripped as his knee banged against the door.

Xander grabbed his leg and cried out. Cordelia whirled. "_Down_, dog, _bad_ dog. . ." She stopped and placed a hand on her hip. "Xander Harris! Did you go and fall down?"

"No," he snapped, sliding down to sit on a stack of exercise mats. "This is me, writhing in fun."

"Oh please." She moved toward him. "You've survived vampires, hyena-possession, and Cujo. I really don't think a door to the shin will do you in." She looked down at his knee and spoke more softly. "Bend it." Xander obeyed, and, seeing he wasn't really hurt, she resumed her more customary tone. "That's what you get for spying, anyway. And for your information, I was just testing the sound system for the big dance. I _am_ on the prom committee." She sniffed. "Some of us have a sense of civic responsibility."

"And I guess you also had to test the dance floor,while you were daydreaming about cutting a rug with Wesley." He brought a hand to his chin, musing, "I wonder how many left feet it's possible for one man to have."

Cordelia took a pointed look at the knee he was still rubbing. "Watch the stone-throwing, Amazing Grace. And for your information, Wesley is a very accomplished ballroom dancer. He won a bunch of trophies back in school." She frowned. "Or maybe that was for horseback riding, I forget."

"Should have figured your prom date would be a man of many talents." Cordelia certainly wasn't a woman to give anything away by blushing, but there was the slightest flutter in her gaze, and before he could stop himself, Xander blurted, "You _are_ going to the prom with Wesley, right?"

"Obviously, I'm _going_," she snapped. "And he's _going_ but. . .he has to chaperone, you know –"

"Chaperone?" Xander repeated. "Cordy, he doesn't actually _work_ for the school. Come to think of it, I'm a little surprised Snyder and the Mayor haven't had him thrown off campus considering –"

"I'm going to be at the prom with Wesley, all right? It's understood. There's just – I think maybe a cross-cultural communication barrier?"

"You mean like he hasn't asked you? Hard as it is to believe, Wesley's actually an adult. If he wanted to ask you to the dance, he would." Cordelia jerked back like he had slapped her, and Xander found himself babbling again. "God, Cordy, I didn't mean – what I meant was you shouldn't just – if he wants to take you out, you should make him take you out. Not –"

"Grope me in a broom closet?" she snapped, starting to turn her back.

"Take you for granted." Cordelia stopped, and Xander said quietly. "You deserve someone who will treat you right. Fight for your honor. Like in _Karate Kid II_."

"And you. . . " She turned back to face Xander and gave him a long look. Then a smile played at the corner of her mouth. "You deserve demon girl."

"Oh God." Xander brought a hand to his forehead. "Anya is – she's just –"

"Terrifying?" Cordelia suggested.

"That's a word for it."

"I'm sure you two will have a lot to talk about," she said primly. "While _I_ am dancing with Wesley Wyndam-Pryce. Although I take it – if he should turn out to be a - what is it they say in those movie where everybody wears corsets and wigs? -- a scoundrel. Well, I assume that offer to fight for my honor stands?"

"Pistols at twenty paces?"

"Or a wizards duel. Though Wesley was Head Boy at the Watchers' Academy, so he might have an unfair advantage."

Xander stared at Cordelia for a moment, but she seemed to be completely serious about that sentence. He managed not to laugh, considering that he still wasn't sure he had complete feeling in his leg, and said, ""I think I could take him."

"What, you'd do that for me?"

"What are friends for?" He stood, testing his balance, and said, "Well, I'll leave you in peace. Get ready for your big night."

"Oh, I will," Cordelia told him. "It's going to be perfect."

*

Once Xander was gone, Cordelia cued up the CD player again, although there was clearly nothing wrong with the sound. No, the music would be fine, the decorations would be lovely, the dance would go off without a hitch. There wouldn't even be helldogs. Cordelia didn't know why, but she believed Buffy about that.

As the song began to play, Cordelia thought about that look Xander gave her on his way out the door. _"Get ready for your big night."_ Because she was still the party girl, thinking about a slow song and a handsome man and a gorgeous dress, no matter that the world was falling down around them. And in spite of everything that had happened between them, it probably made Xander feel better that he could predict so much about her. _Yeah, Xander, you know me so well._

One thing he would never know.

He had caught her practicing for the perfect prom, all right. But she hadn't been thinking about Wesley.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [All Things Leave Me (The Boys are Back in Town Remix)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1550906) by [sevendeadlyfun](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sevendeadlyfun/pseuds/sevendeadlyfun)




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